Love Shack, a large porn shop that tried to evade the new city's adult zoning regulations, has decided to close. Owner John Cornetta claims he's losing about $40,000 a month. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports today:
“I guess I could say we’re relieved,” said Kitty Garrison, owner of North Atlanta Dance Academy, across the street from the Love Shack.
“It was the issue of a sexually oriented business close to a residential area, a school bus stop, and 400 young dancers that made the community nervous,” Garrison said...
One Johns Creek resident, Don Kennedy, expresses dismay that the city pressured a small business to close. He may not be aware of how adult businesses can depress the economic life of surrounding businesses and stimulate criminal activity. These are called "secondary effects", and they are why proactive cities regulate adult businesses through zoning:
State of Minnesota, Report of the Attorney General’s Working Group on the Regulation of Sexually Oriented Businesses, Office of the Attorney General (June 6, 1989)
This is a seminal work which investigates the secondary effects of adult businesses from a number of different research perspectives. Not only is the effect on crime included, so is the effect on neighborhood disorganization and disorder, as are the effects on property values addressed. The New York study also concluded that business locations with adult-oriented businesses had a significant loss of sales tax collections (42%) as compared to control areas. Studies of Minneapolis, St. Paul, Indianapolis, Phoenix, and Los Angeles are cited. RICO and organized criminal elements of the industry are also discussed. It was found that dramatic increases in crime rates were directly associated with the introduction of adult-oriented businesses into any community studied. Evidence is articulated indicating that property crimes were forty to fifty percent higher, and sex-related crimes were found to be seventy to as much as 500 percent higher--depending upon the municipality. Other non-crime community issues are also discussed.
Springfield, MA is quite familiar with secondary effects, as discussed in Capital Video's Springfield Porn Shop Repels Sought-After Businesses and Springfield Police Commissioner: "...it is fair to say that 'Amazing' constitutes an attractive nuisance that contributes to blighted conditions there".
That secondary effects occur is no surprise when you consider the attitude of many porn shop operators to their communities. Here is Mr. Cornetta in 2007:
Aspen Newspapers: "Johns Creek takes another crack at Shack", 6/27/07
Johns Creek filed a petition last week in the Superior Court of Fulton County to declare Love Shack in violation of city ordinances and order it to comply or close...
Cornetta said the petition is 'no big deal,' citing his more than 15 years of traveling down this road. This is just another day, he said.
"This is what I do for a living. I chew up and spit out local municipalities like Popeye chewed spinach," said Cornetta.
See also:
Struggle Over "Love Shack" in Georgia; New City Adopts State-of-the-Art Adult-Use Ordinance (12/22/06)
The Johns Creek SOB ordinance ( PDF, 5.9 MB ) was adopted this month. In many aspects it appears to be the 'state of the art' in adult-use regulations. It cites the latest relevant court cases and many recent secondary effects studies, and addresses some of the dodges adult businesses have used to try to get around ordinances elsewhere (see "Spanish Popeye").
SEE ARTICLE
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